Dirge "Scarred forever" Lp 2005

Before I commence ranting, the numerous TSN followers (we've just reached the million) will have noticed that there have been some troubles with my download links lately. In fact, Rapidshare decided out of the blue to slow down considerably the downloading speed (unless you buy a rapidshare account obviously). Since I was already paying for my Rapidshare account and did not see much point in keeping it if people had to wait several hours to download one Ep, I decided to switch to another server (yet again). As a consequence, I will have to re-upload all the files and it might take some time. I will do it progressively but anyone wants to download a specific file, just leave a comment and I will get to it promptly (or give a spirited try). Now, let's talk about music, shall we?

When you see such a cover, what is your first impression? 1: A lame d-beat band from Sweden? 2: Harsh crustcore from Slovakia? 3: Embarassing metal-punk? 1: Wrong (thanks fuck). 2: Wrong (but nothing wrong with Slovakian crust punk though). 3: Wrong (we don't do cvlt mvsic here). I don't know who picked the cover for this record but it was not a wise choice, especially since there is much more appropriate, relevant artwork in the thick booklet. Neither crust, metal nor d-beat, Dirge was a noisy hardcore punk band from Leicester.

The band started in 1983 and split up at the beginning of 1986 (though the band reached its apex in 1984). Dirge was made up of members from Vile Bodies and Rotting corpse, two obscure local bands that I really wish I knew (but not having recorded anything if I understand correctly, it is very unlikely to happen, isn't it?). What is quite formidable with Dirge is that they perfectly bridge the gap between fairly typical, animal rights-oriented, Conflicty anarchopunk and the tumultuously noist noise of Chaos UK and Disorder. Not unlike early Anti-System, early Legion of Parasites or even Wretched, but sloppier, more basic and more distorted. To be even more accurate, play the first side of Antisect's "Peace is better than a place in history" and, simultaneously, play Disorder's "Under the scalpel blade". Dirge feels like they were a serious band as they embraced the notion of punk as a vehicle for protest, but they were still, unashamedly, also very PUNK (and actually, they looked really punk too!).

Dirge's music was solidly influenced by the Bristol school (you won't be too surprised to learn that Dirge has shared the stage with Disorder, Chaos UK, Anti-System or Wretched) but, contrary to many current bands trying too hard to emulate that sound, there was no calculation on their part. They were genuinely shitty musicians with shitty instruments recording with shitty gears and a shitty 4-tracks, and that's why their songs, 30 years later, are so bloody great. Sloppy, shambolic and yet extremely catchy too. The song "The right to refuse" is an unsung anthem (which was actually included on a Mortarhate compilation) replete with anger, outrage and the unshakable desire to make a stand. The furious two-vocals attack works terrifically and sounds suitably snotty and aggressive. I would give it an A on the Antisect-live-in-Coventry-1982 scale, a highly-coveted grade I seldom give. The guitar is both VERY distorted and untuned so that only the most careful listeners will be able to spot an actual chord. The bass is muddy, all over the place and drives the whole chaotic mess, as the genre requires. The lyrics attest that the band was really into animal rights, vegetarianism and hunt-sabbing but you will also find other regular among the menu: war, nuclear war and shit propaganda in the media.

I really like the aesthetics of the band and the think booklet has everything you have ever dreamt to know about the band (you may want to read the chapter dedicated to Dirge in "Trapped in a scene" for good measure). You have a band's history, interviews, a retrospective view of the band, pictures, flyers, lyrics (with Japanese translations). That's how reissues should be done. The Lp includes the "Right to refuse"'s 1984 demo and a live set of the same year which saw the band covering... a Skum Dribblurzzz' song ("Walk tall")!!! No shit! They don't even earn punk points with that one, they can have the whole pack of points! Former members of Dirge currently play in the Wankys and Threat of War, and the bass player, Debbie, even played in the 96 reformation of Dirt (beside doing a stint with Suicidal Supermarket Trolleys and, if I'm not mistaken, Zero Tolerance). Old punks still into it: what's not to love? "Scarred forever" was released on famous Japanese label Crust War, which was quite a surprise for me, as the label only deals with Japanese bands (Warfear, another 80's noisy English band being the other exception). As I have said, this is a great-looking record that would have deserved a different cover. But since I am not one to judge a book by its cover, I finally got over it (sort of...).      

The right to refuse!!!

Rapidshare's shenanigans

I have just realized that none of the links of Terminal Sound Nuisance works. Rapidshare completely changed the way it works overnight and made it a bit more difficult to share links (hence the now slightly ironic use of the word "rapid").

I will try to post new working links as soon as possible, but if you want to download a specific recording and see that something is not quite right, please leave a comment and I will get off my arse to replace it.

Machine Gun Etiquette "S/t" Ep 2002

Almost two weeks since my last post... Time does fly... And actually this one is going to be short since I don't have much to say about the band and, for once, I will let the music do the ranting.

This Ep is just high quality old-school punk-rock. I could stop the review here but then I guess some convincing might be needed since Machine Gun Etiquette have never exactly been the most hyped band of their time. MGE were from Glasgow and formed in the mid 90's. They were touring mates of Ex-Cathedra with whom they shared a member (re-reading the Ex-Cathedra chapter today I realized that there was an ex-Dreadful member in the band: from monstrously chaotic grindcore to ska-punk... The amazing world of punk!). In fact, MGE's music is not so dissimilar to Ex-Cathedra's punkier moments. Raspy and snotty vocals, good bass lines, super catchy chorus that you instantly remember and shout along to. Quality stuff, I told you. MGE brings to mind some of the older punk bands like SLF or UK Subs but with the added snottiness and aggression of Mayhem, Uproar, Chaotic Youth or Last Rites. I personally see them in the same light as the other great tuneful punk-rock bands of the 90's in Britain, bands like Red Flag 77, Zero Tolerance, Suicidal Supermarket Trolleys, The Nerves or even the records External Menace did during that decade (and they are top notch records for sure).

From what I can gather, MGE were definitely a political band who happened to also love the funnier side of punk-rock and this shows in their lyrics. The A side was recorded in 1999 while the other one is two years older. The first song is actually my favourite and may even be the best MGE's song ever. "Hate this city" is a brutally honest, hopeless and vivid depiction of life in Glasgow, a city famous for its violence and its cut-throat alleys. The sound on this one is terrific and the chorus are infectious (though this could be said for the three songs of this Ep). The introductory bass melody hooks you right away and takes you for a ride during the whole song. Despite lyrics about alienation in a grey and ruthless city, you will find yourself humming to this little wonder all day. There are two other songs on the B side, "18P1984" and "Joe Public", and although the sound is not as good, the song-writing and the tunes are solid enough to make thoroughly enjoyable. "18P1984" is a tongue in cheek one about a punk musician who is only in it for the drugs and the sex and doesn't understand why he cannot write a decent song. "Joe Public" is about censorship and propaganda in the media and how we are kept in line with stupid and superficial news while the real issues are silenced.

This Ep was the last MGE's record and it is probably their best one (though I must confess that the cover is pretty terrible... Seriously, nuns with guns?). It was released on Gas Records, which is, I believe, Slime's record label (or at least a label closely related to them). Some of the members of Machine Gun Etiquette went on to play in Scunnered, probably among other bands.

MGE     

Blowhard "Harsh" Ep 1994

When one reflects upon good Canadian crusty punk music, Montreal often comes to mind. And the past twenty years have shown that seeing Montreal as Canada's crust capital makes sense. This scene has produced numerous crust bands (like the much underrated Global Holocaust, System Shit, Human Greed, Hellbound, Disagree or in more recent times the Sacrilege cover-band After The Bombs) that would make a caveman feel like singing along. Similarly, Massgrave - live, probably the best ENT/Disrupt-style crustcore band around - managed to put Vancouver on the map of all lovers of bear-like vocals. But Toronto? Even though I know little about the punk scene there, it is not a city I usually associate with patches, a dodgy hygiene or sloppy "Police bastards" covers. If it had not been for Blowhard, you would think from the outside that it was a crust-free area in the 90's, quite odd indeed when you consider the dozens of active crusty bands in North America then.

Having released only one Ep in 1994, blowhard is unlikely to go down in history as a crucial band, even in the punk scale of things. Interestingly, the band that rose from Blowhard's ashes in the late 90's was much more successful: Legion 666, the band that played heavy, Hellhammer-influenced crusty hardcore punk before it was fashionable and infected by the Metal Punx Cheese Squad. If you listen to Blowhard while keeping in mind the power of Legion 666, you will be able to see the connection. Of course, Bloward is much less metal and more direct than Legion. Undeniably part of the 90's crust wave in terms of sound and production, they are nevertheless not your average, enjoyable Doom clone. In fact, I would venture that they were equally influenced by Hiatus and Crude SS, with a dash of early Onslaught (and I can't help spotting similarities with Global Holocaust as well, but it may be just me). Sounds good, doesn't it? The guitar sound is very thick, fuzzy yet groovy, not unlike early Doom's, the bass does the work it is expected, the drumming is powerful and relatively accurate and the vocals don't sound forceful or over-the-top but still deliver the aggression and anger needed. It is actually a pretty good record and the lyrics are pretty smart too, definitely above the cliched apocalytpic, pseudo misanthropic haikus that sometimes pass for lyrics: songs about police brutality, pro-choice, green capitalism being still capitalism, male insecurities, the need to see ecology as a global issue rather than solely a national one and feeling angry and frustrated because we are part of, and even contribute to, a social system that we hate.

I am not really into the record's cover to be honest. First, it is misleading as pictures of difigured faces pretty much indicate the goregrind territory, a place where people with decent music tastes like myself don't like to tread. Second, and more importantly, the choice of a gory imagery doesn't really make sense because it is not backed by a commentary from the band. It is gore for gore's sake which is somewhat different to using extreme images or pictures in order to make a political point. The artwork inside is much more to my liking and actually reflects well what the band was all about. The lesson here: don't judge a book or a Blowhard record by its cover.

Harsh!         

Resist And Exist "Human, Earth, Animal Liberation (HEAL)" live cd 2003

Resist And Exist is certainly one of the most politically genuine and active US anarchopunk band ever. Although it is hard to tell from a European point of view, I suppose they have not been as globally influential as bands like Aus-Rotten or Resist (but then R&E unfortunately never toured outside of the Americas). For some reason, I often think about these bands together, as some sort of unholy American anarcho trinity that really epitomizes what US anarchopunk was all about (not that there weren't other worthy anarchist punk bands in the US in the 90's (Antiproduct, Mankind? or Civil Disobedience were all top notch too). R&E rose out of the prolific late 80's/early 90's Californian anarchopunk and crust scene that birthed such terrific bands as Apocalypse, Glycine Max or A//Solution. Remarkably, R&E survived all the trends and the decades and are still active today, although they don't play as much as they used to. In fact, along with the very under-appreciated Armistice, they are the last band standing of that once glorious scene.

The R&E story is a little complicated but here is what I understood from my research. They originally formed in 1990 in LA and appeared to have been quite close to Media Children, an older fellow anarcho band whose sound was not dissimilar to Welsh band Symbol of Freedom and with whom R&E shared a member. The name is a reference to an early Antisect song, an influence that will always be felt in R&E's music, ethics and aesthetics. This early incarnation of R&E existed for about two years and released two demos, "Music for social change" in 1991 and "The oppressors" in 1992, and they even toured with Total Chaos (back when they were still part of the SoCal anarcho scene and covered Antisect and Disorder instead of doing cheesy music videos). At the time, R&E's music wasn't as heavy as it is now and was closer to local bands like A State of Mind or aforementioned Media Children than the heavy metallic crust punk that a lot of bands went for. Heavily influenced by bands such as Chumbawamba, Alternative or Lost Cherrees, the presence of a great female vocalist gave the band this old-school British sound that I am a sucker for. They also had a couple of faster songs that reflected a love for early Antisect/Anti-System, Potential Threat or, on their own side of the pond, Iconoclast and Crucifix. In 1992, the band split up. Later on in the mid-90's, some members did Autonomy, a band that can be seen as a continuation of the first R&E and an introduction to the final version. Autonomy must have stopped playing around 1996 and in 1997, the new R&E appeared and released their first Ep, "Korean protest".

The "HEAL" cd contains a live performance recorded in San Fransisco. Although I have never had the joy of witnessing the band live, judging from the pictures and videos floating around the internet, R&E gigs are proper anarcho feasts: banners with political slogans, signs, videos, some stage-acting as well, in the great tradition of Crass and Chumba. The cd was released in 2003 but it is safe to say that the recording is probably 2 or 3 years older as the line-up still had members that left just before the 2002's split with Phobia. Beside, the setlist is entirely made up of songs from the "Kwangju" Lp that was released in 2000 so situating the gig in 2000 or 2001 makes sense (now, that's academic precision for ya!). Sonically, R&E were not quite as metallic as they are today but were harder-hitting than in the late 90's. This is bass-driven, heavy hardcore punk reminiscent of Antisect/Anti-System (but with a distinct 90's feel), with heavy mid-tempo moments like Exit-Stance or Aus-Rotten, and epic metallic bits that remind me of Nausea and indicate the direction that the band would take for their next recordings. The sound is quite good, you can hear everything, and you know what, maybe it is too good and some extra roughness would have made it sound less polished. I wouldn't consider this cd a crucial R&E record but it is certainly one worth listening to if you are into the band and too far away to actually see them.

Lyrically and politically, R&E are one of a kind. Definitely more radical and politically motivated than the myriads of bands happy with paraphrasing Disclose, R&E deal with actual political issues and, seeing themselves as anarchist revolutionaries (that's what they claim during the gig anyway), are not afraid to advocate direct actions and even armed struggle (the song "Aeons upon aeons"). They have a song about a Black Panther political prisoner, one about race and self-hatred, one in Korean about the Kwangju uprising, an interesting piece of revolutionary history that is largely ignored (learning history with punk-rock: what else?). You also have a song about animal rights, a topic that is usually seen nowadays as being quite clichéd but one that the band has always been very concerned and, above all, very active about. You may not agree with everything the band says but, at least, it will provoke a reaction, make you think about real issues. R&E have always genuinely seen punk as "a movement for social change" and their lyrics reflect this idea. It may be an idealistic idea and cynical, bitter bastards like me would even say it is a cheesy one (even "soy-cheese" cheesy). Nevertheless, it is a beautiful, powerful one and it makes me feel good about myself. Punk will not change the world, but it could help changing it, be part of a more global revolutionary movement, or something epic like that. I'd rather listen to a band who believe in this ideal than to meaningless indie-rock or pseudo misanthropic blackened crust or whatever.

This particular cd was a benefit for an animal shelter in Arizona and other worthy causes that have to do with ecology and animal liberation. It was released on Mediattack Records, an obscure label that I know one other release from (the Kismet Hardcore album) but apparently did some more stuff as well (not only punk-rock though).

Now to serious matters: who's buying a ticket to LA?          

HEAL     

Enola Gay / Vomit Yourself - "Exempted authority" / "Nihilism..." split Lp 1995

France is not exactly renowned for its crust bands. Crust is almost like marmite or cheesecake to us: we just don't seem to really like it. And it is not just crust actually, anything Discharge-influenced is pretty much absent from the French punk scenes until the 90's (with a smashingly great exception but that's a story for another day). Of course, there have been bands doing the crusty style throughout the years but, in my opinion, as sincere and genuine the people involved may have been, nothing really spectacular came out of them (and I include bands I have played in of course). With one remarkable exception: the Enola Gay/Vomit Yourself split Lp, which is probably the best French crust record ever.Both bands were from Auch, a small town in the South of France with 20.000 inhabitants, not far from Toulouse, but still far enough to be considered as sitting in the middle of nowhere. And yet, despite its geographical location (or maybe thanks to it, who knows), Auch was the French crust capital in the 90's and is still producing new crusty bands today (Violent Grannies). What do they put in the water in Auch? I don't have a clue, but it must be pretty strong.

Enola Gay was the first band - to my knowledge - of a long series to do the crust. They have actually been quite prolific over the years with two split Lp's (this one and another one released the same year with great anarcho-hardcoreros Coche Bomba), one Ep, one split Ep with Vivisection from Japan and a split tape with fellow countrymen Spasm. Enola Gay started off with a drum machine (their first record, the Ep, was done with a drum machine) around 1992 I would guess and they kept going until 1996 when some members of Enola Gay formed Disbeer while the remaining members along with people from Vomit Yourself, started Sickness (small scene, right?). Despite their - very - sloppy start, Enola Gay is my favourite Auch band. If someone ever asks you to define what 90's European crust music sounded like, just play their side of this split Lp and you won't have to say anything. They have just the perfect sound for the genre, heavy, beefy, effortlessly powerful and aggressive. The drums are pummeling and punchy, quite like Hiatus' drumming really, the vocals are gruffy but never feel contrived, the guitar is thick in an Extreme Noise Terror way and the bass leads the way it should. It is really top-of-the-shelf crustcore, up there with the aforementioned Hiatus (undeniably the kings of the genre), early Doom, Subcaos, Toxic Bonkers, early Disrupt and MVD.

On the other side you will have to survive to Vomit Yourself. French punks love vomit (see Vomit for Breakfast or Ultra Vomit for instance), especially the punks of the grindcore-loving variety. Contrary to crust, France has never been short of grindcore bands and although Vomit Yourself is not a pure grind band, they use enough blast beats to be approached in this light. In fact, if that friend of yours, the one who asked about eurocrust, ever wants to know what grind/crust could sound like, don't bother with a lengthy explanation and play the other side of this record. Vomit Yourself retains some similar 90's crust elements to Enola Gay but with a large dose of old-school grindcore (think early Napalm Death, Agathocles or Rot). There is also a Sore Throat vibe for the sense of humour (and a few nods) and at times Electro Hippies are not too far off the picture either. It is fast, really fast, on the whole but the bands also have slower, heavier moments that are not dissimilar to early Dystopia or Eyehategod. Like on the Enola Gay side, the sound is punchy and will make your dreadlocks grow instantly.

There is a great-looking punk as fuck booklet included with the record with all the lyrics and translations, cheesy crust art and pictures. You can see that this is a DIY production done with heart and guts, with a lot of effort put in the visual aspect, something that is often cruelly missing today. The lyrics are fairly direct and political (anti-multinationals, anti-pigs, anti-rich, anti-vivisection and so on) but there are also a few drinking and partying anthems as well (Enole Gay covers "Banned from the pubs" if that's any indication of their love for booze). This Lp was released on Panx Records, a label from Toulouse that was very active in the late 80's and throughout the 90's and was responsible for excellent Ep compilations that promoted local and worldwide DIY punk-rock with bands as varied as Antidogmatikss, Ghradanskaya Oborona, Beyond Description or Valse Triste, and celebrated musical diversity by releasing grindcore, crust (Primitiv Bunko, Disbeer) as well as melodic hardcore (Greedy Guts) or old-school punk-rock (Légitime Défonce).

A great, unpretentious record for lovers of good crust and good grindcore, but above all, for lovers of music with a PUNK attitude. No technical bollocks, just hard-hitting fast punk music. And the best thing is that 90's crust is so unpopular currently that you will able to find this one for less than a fiver.

Auch crust city in the 90's!

PS: special thanks to Manu for recommending that brilliant record.  

Hellbastard "The good go first" Lp 2000

To say that I am a sucker for UK crust would be an understatement. Like any person with good tastes, I literally adore the old classic bands and am always looking for little-known recordings or interviews from that era. I discovered those bands about 10 years ago, at a time when the internet was still very much an abstraction for me and downloading music akin to witchcraft. I had read the name "Hellbastard" somewhere in a review and it immediately stuck with me because, when you really think about it, Hellbastard is a bloody great name for a band! Anyway, after hours of fruitless research on the web, I came upon the website of Acid Stings records and realized that they had a Hellbastard cd called "In grind we crust". The website was not updated and they didn't have many records to sell but I still sent them an email. Weeks later, I got a reply asking to send something like 10 quids through the post (I was living in England back then) and that's how I got my first Hellbastard experience. I didn't know it at the time, but all the so-called stenchcore bands were about to be re-discovered by a new generation of punks and bands inspired by that specific sound were soon to start playing, following the path that Hellshock had uncovered. A few years later, most of those old British bands would reform and a lot of their works would be reissued, but as I received Hellbastard's "In grind we crust" cd, I was pretty sure that it was a piece of obscure punk history I was unearthing and it is really one of the best thing to feel.

But enough cheesy memories for now and let's talk about Hellbastard. I don't think they need much of an introduction but for those of you who suck enough not to be into them, they were a metal/punk band from Newcastle who formed in 1984, took a great part in the original crust adventure, ended up as a mediocre thrash-metal band and disbanded in 1992. Along with Deviated Instinct (and, retrospectively, Axegrinder, although I don't think they were as influential back then), they were the band that really epitomized the crust genre, the shapes of which had already been moulded by Antisect and Amebix. From what can be gathered in "Trapped in a scene", they toured a lot and lived passionately for their band which is how it should be. They are also the band that coined the term "crust" in reference to the shitty sound of the guitar's pedal, hence naming their first demo "Rippercrust".

"The good go first" is a little-known record that was released in 2000 by a Japanese label called Dirty Thrash Records. If the record itself is somewhat obscure, the recording is better-known as it is nothing less than the "Hate militia" demo, originally recorded by Hellbastard in 1987, as well as one Nero Circus song, one of HB's guitar player Scruff's later bands. I think Agipunk is meant to reissue "Hate miltia" on vinyl with all the original artwork at some point but I don't know if this is actually going to see the light of day. This second demo is not as "famous" as "Rippercrust" although it had one of its songs appear on a Peaceville sampler ("Civilised?" on "A vile peace" which you can find on this blog). The sound is more bass-driven than on "Rippercrust" (which was all about chunky and filthy guitar) and on the whole it may not be quite as heavy. Saying this, don't expect a Buzzcocks cover band: it is still ripping, greasy, angry metallic punk with attitude (orthodox metalheads would say "shitty metal" but whatever...). The band had obviously progressed in terms of musicianship but the production isn't exactly flawless as the band had apparently fucked off to the nearest pub during the last stage of the production. While the drumming is just perfect on the numerous mid-tempo parts with a crude, organic yet energetic sound, on the faster moments it gets lost in the maelstrom of noise. Otherwise it is classic early Hellbastard: take the harder anarchopunk bands, Amebixes' sense of epics, the early thrash bands, Hellhammer's insanity, gruffy vocals and add some punk snot and dirt. A unique cocktail indeed. Some of the songs have spoken parts done by a female singer (like on the first Lp) that sound just brilliant and I just wish the band had done that more often. Lyrically, there are some serious political themes like opposing racism, the fate of Native Americans or the nazi death camps, as well as songs that reflect the alienation of everyday life in the Northern post-industrial wastelands. I wasn't expecting much from the Nero Circus song, recorded in 1996, but I was wrong and probably prejudiced as it is quite good. It reminds me of a grungier late Amebix, a little like Muckspreader maybe? Definitely worth checking out.

Depending on your artistic taste, you may find the aesthetics of the "The good go first" dreadful or brilliant. I am still unsure on which side I am. The cover could have been used for a heavy-metal band if it were not for the green, red and yellow colours at the bottom that are more reminiscent of the reggae world. The inside of the gatefold is much more interesting with a lot of old pictures of Hellbastard, all the lyrics, words from the members, a HB history, a testimony of the band's relevance written by a fellow called Mark and massive thank lists. It is a work of love and it does show. I am a bit more sceptical about the cover though!  

Good Hellbastard comes first

            

Another Destructive System "Break the silence" cd 2006

There has undeniably been a renewed interest in 80's British anarchopunk in the past few years, particularly from some corners of the American scene. Bands like OK?, Surrender or Permaculture clearly cherish Crass, Chumbawamba and Alternative, while Vivid Sekt, Moral Hex or Autonomy are obsessed with the darker side of British postpunk (Lack of Knowledge, Internal Autonomy, Part-1, Vex...). Closer to home, 1981 from Finland brilliantly blend Chumba-style punk with US folk-punk. One might think that this revival, so to speak, would also affect 90's anarchopunk or, if the 80's are still a prerequisite, early US anarchopunk, but one would be wrong (and one often is, to be honest). Apart from Crucifix and, to a lesser extent, Iconoclast (but then, they mostly get interest as "rawpunk bands" rather than anarcho bands), early US anarcho bands are not only largely ignored, but also widely undocumented. And indeed, you will find little information about A State of Mind, Trial, Media Children, Atrocity or Bodycount and about this tremendous scene from California. For social and cultural reasons, UK-influenced political punk-rock spread like fire on the West coast and it was no coincidence that the first Discharge and Crass-type bands or the first crust bands emerged from that context. Another Destructive System was one of those bands.

From Los Angeles, ADS did two demos in the mid-80's (1986 and 1987 respectively) which, despite a rather rough sound, showed the great potential of the band and illustrated the different musical influences at work in that scene. With two singers, early ADS was as much about early Antisect, Conflict or Icons of Filth than about more metal-oriented punk bands, not unlike Oi Polloi on the Toxik Ephex split or Pro Patria Mori actually, some sort of proto-crust sound, still very much anchored in the anarchopunk tradition but using filthy thrash riffs. The ADS demos epitomized that crucial moment between great hardcore-punk and old crust, the missing link between Crucifix, Final Conflict and Apocalypse.

Apparently, the band reformed several times during the 90's, one time to support Dirt when they toured the US along with Hellkrusher, but "Break the silence" was recorded during their latest (and probably last) reformation, that took place in the late 00's. The cd contains both old songs and new songs and was released on Mortarhate, Colin Jerwood's label. Re-recording old songs - and reforming a band - is a very tricky enterprise in the punk world. It is usually disappointing as the youthfulness of early recordings is often absent from the new versions recorded in a totally different context. Extreme Noise Terror's "Retro-bution" is a perfect example of the discrepancy between the compelling fury and chaos of early ENT songs and the too polished and overproduced new versions that appeared on that cd, not that it is a bad record in itself, but you can hear instantly that something is missing (and the band was aware of that as it is revealed in "Trapped in a scene"). Amebix' attempt at re-recording was, by and large, a failure too, as the songs lost their thick and organic texture in the process although one has to praise the band for not trying to do the exact same versions of their old song, which would have been ridiculous. Antisect's last 10" is more successful in modernizing their sound and although the songs lack intensity, they have the crunch of 90's UK hardcore-punk and are quite promising if the band intends to record something new (as I hope they will!). Varukers' "Still bollocks but still there" may be the best re-recorded versions of old songs that I can think of right now. The 90's records of the Varukers were excellent anyway and that cd brilliantly and effortlessly turned their 80's songs into what UK hardcore-punk sounded like at the time. Now, let's take a look at the new versions of Another Destructive System's songs.

Of the nine songs included on "Break the silence", you will find five new songs ("Another destructive system", "Apartheid system", "Days of war", "Aren't you getting the message" and "This is our world") and five old ones ("Get active", "Break the silence", "Don't get locked", "What is your nightmare" and "Animals inadequate"). Needless to say that the sound is much more polished and cleaner than on the 80's demo. Though I don't feel that it is overproduced, it is perhaps too clean and the songs lacks the raw ferocity that they used to have. On the other hand, you can actually hear perfectly what is going on. Only one of the original singers is still behind the mike (the one with the deep, almost amebixesque voice), while the other one has been replaced with a female singer who has a very energetic, angry voice. The male/female vocal combination in addition to the cleaner production, give "Break the Silence" a 90's US anarchopunk feel, a bit like a cross between Final Warning and Antiproduct, or between Jesus Chrust and Mankind?. Resist and Exist also comes to mind, which makes sense since they are the only surviving band of this 80's US anarcho wave (when the members were in Autonomy). The songs are quite diverse in terms of tempo and mood: you have tribal drumming parts, spoken parts, full-on fast antisectish moments, great crunchy metal parts. On the whole, I think it is a good album. Despite the age of some of the songs, the themes haven't become out of date (wars, animal abuse, punk as a political movement, racism, standing out against the bastards...). Some of the songs, especially some of the newer ones, might have benefited from better song-writing, but then the old ones are so good that it is difficult for them not to pale a little in comparison. More importantly, "Break the silence" feels like a record from a recent bands of its time. It fits well in the 2000's Californian political punk scene and I can perfectly imagine a gig with Another Destructive System, Resist and Exist, Scarred For Life, Against//Empire and Holokaust. A good, honest band that made a good, honest record. Punk, innit?

Get active, don't stagnate!